Outpouring of grief and prayers flood social media

Hashtags like #Pray4Nepal, #NepalEarthquake, #CandleLightVigil, #Dharahara and #earthquake trended through the day with millions of tweets and posts appearing on social media. PM Narendra Modi’s tweet promising help to Nepal was retweeted more than 2,100 times and ‘favourited’ by around 2,200 users.

“Spoke to PM Sushil Koirala, who is in transit in Bangkok on his way to Kathmandu. Assured all support & assistance during this tough time,” Modi had tweeted. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also took to the microblogging website, where she tweeted, “My prayers with the people of #Nepal and across India after the massive #earthquake. Hope everyone is safe. Stay calm.” 

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdulla, too, sent out a message. “Heart wrenching imagines coming out of Nepal. #NepalEarthquake #PrayForNepal Can’t help but remember 2005 in Kashmir. Terrible memories,” posted Omar.  Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan tweeted the picture of a damaged temple in Nepal and wrote, “O! God .. this is Nepal earthquake ..!!! I shot a song here for ‘Mahaan’ with Zeenat Aman .. pray all well.” 

Shahrukh Khan wrote, “May Allah look after all... Prayers with all in Nepal.”  The first pictures of the destruction that were shared on Instagram went viral across online platforms.

A person with the username ‘harbrapper’ posted a picture of a devastated house in Kathmandu and wrote, “Terrible site, brick and stones lying everywhere.” 

That post drew comments from people in countries like China, Japan and the US, who said they were praying for the “ill-fated” victims.